Rest in Peace, Walkazo

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You should probably redact the link, because there's a picture of the accident that killed Walkazo (yes this is the one that killed her). It's trigger worthy.

It also reveals her actual name in there.
 
Well for the sake of privacy and respect for her private identity I'll leave it removed.
 
Yeah, maybe, but it's not just the fact that it's simply a car on its side. It's a picture of a wreck that killed Walkazo, and images can just make it worse. Some people are more sensitive to this than others. I was on chat the other day and even though I saw a worse picture (it was a picture of a car upside-down in a ditch), other people advised against posting the article because it's horrible. They advised that if you want the article, you should just PM someone about it if they want.
 
Mcmadness said:
It just dawned on me that Walkazo and I live in the same city.
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I live 10 minutes away, and about two hours away from the accident. My mom heard about the story on the news.

It's fucking scary.
 
This is still so shocking. I have always admired Walkazo's art and comics. She was, without doubt, one of the most creative and artistic users here. I also have always admired her calm, kind and caring personality. It is so heartbreaking to see such an amazing person taken from us like this. The possibility of something like this happening just never dawned on me. I may not have been close to her as some other people here, but I have always respected her. Rest in peace, Walkazo, know that your contributions to this site will never be forgotten.
 
I have seen several news outlets like CP24, CTV and CityNews report the same thing but one of them mentions that Walkazo (under her real name) was the one that indeed died. Which makes this legit and real.

Like everyone said, it's very tragic and sad. So there is no denying it.
 
This is not the right topic to take sidetracks onto tangentally related subjects. Please take those to another topic, and let this one be for mourning Walkazo.

Thank you.
 
Sorry if this post sounds weird and awry, it's hard trying to process words and sentences and thoughts still. This is kind of unrelated to Walkazo herself, so I apologize if this is the wrong place for this, but I wanted to say that this is the closest community I have ever seen. Seeing everyone come and band together here and on chat has been the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I don't know how to describe it, truthfully. We all have our ups and downs but the way this place has come together to mourn and express our memories and thoughts about Walkazo is just incredible and remarkable. This is a true family. I don't want to speak on Walkazo's behalf, but I bet she'd be happy just seeing how much we've all come together to support one another, to comfort and help each other through this time. I saw someone, I think it was KPH, say on IRC about just how close-knit this community is. I'm proud of you guys. Thank you for being here for each other. I just wanted to say that.
 
Well I'm glad the community is here when me and my twin were cutting ourselves and had a sudden outbreak, and I'm glad the community is always here for anyone suffering. Incidents like these, while horrific in all ways, make us come together and closer to one another, let's not deny it. I mean, we don't even physically know each other and we probably won't, yet we still closely and strongly connect to each other in times like this.

As 3K said, everyone here are friends to each other, and that's a rare thing to see in online communities. I'm really proud to be part of this community.
 
This community is full of interesting, funny, amazing, and kind users. I'm also proud to have been a part of this community, and to have met you all.

I want you all to know that, just in the off chance that something happens to me, you've all been incredibly kind and supportive even at my low points, and always given me second chances when I make stupid mistakes.

I love each and every one of you, and I mean that sincerely.

Sorry if this post sounds all "me, me, me", but I feel in light of recent events, if I were to suddenly pop off, I'm not sure how you guys would know how I truly feel about you all.


Probably the biggest thing I'm going to miss about Walkazo was how smart she was. Even though I never really interacted with her much, I'd often come across one of her posts, whether it was a scientific post, or something less serious like the Doctor Who topic or even discussing Mario. She would always go into great detail at the topic at hand, even if it didn't need detail as such. It was just nice to come across one of her posts, because you knew it was going to be good.
And she was never wrong, either. Everything she said was always on point, and made perfect sense, even to an idiot like me. Can't forget her art either, the way it was made, just with pens and pencils, yet it came out so beautiful.

Such a smart and talented life taken away at such a young age, it's undeniably cruel. All I would really want to say to her was simply "Thank you".

Thank you for your knowledge, and your wit. Thank you for your dedication to the job. Thank you for your kindness. I will miss you dearly. Please rest easy, in peace.
 
I made this account just so I could post this message.

This has been the most surreal day of my life.

I was clearing out my deviantArt inbox and saw Pantaro's status update. Felt like someone dumped a bucket of ice on me. I flew into an outright panic, went everywhere I could think, searched all over to find something that could tell me it wasn't true. It had to be a joke. I must have misread something. But I kept seeing it everywhere. And I can't stop crying. Every time I go to post something about her, I have to double check everything. Some deranged part of me still wants to think I've been mislead somehow. That I've somehow misinterpreted all this.

I was a dumb kid, on FFNet 8 years ago. I wanted to use Bowselta for a fic I wanted to write, never went anywhere, so being a dumb kid, I just kinda asked. A ballsy move I'd never do today, but one I don't regret.

I never went anywhere with the fic, but we just kept talking. There'd be periods where'd we'd stop, but once one e-mail got sent it just kept going for months, and her replies became one of the rare social interactions I truly looked forward to.

She was one of the only people I ever opened to. One of the only people I could talk to sincerely about myself. One of the only people I ever let into my world, who I shared that special place in my heart I escaped to with. One of the only people who encouraged me to write, to share that world with others. One of the only people who tried to help me overcome my difficulty writing.

One of my only friends.

Someone I was proud to call that.

And yet, now all at once I feel like I never knew her. She meant so much to me, but I feel like I talked too much about myself, too much about nothing of consequence, like I never truly got to know her. I never saw her face. I never heard her voice. I never got to meet her.

And that will probably go down as my biggest regret in life.

I've been so ready to give up on writing lately. So disappointed with myself and how it's so difficult for me to express my creativity. So ready to let my world die with me.

To hell with that.

She wanted to help me, and I won't let that be for nothing.

I'm gonna write, Walkazo. And every word will be for you.

I'll share my story, and I'll share yours, with anyone and everyone who will listen.

But I'll miss you. And I'm sorry I never gave as much as you did in our friendship.

This is the first and only forum I've ever allowed users to e-mail me directly. If anyone wants to talk about her, to vent about her, well... I'm a good listener. Everyone in my family has always vented to me, and for the first time in my life? I want people to. I'd love nothing more than to learn more about her.
 
O-o-h man. My condolences to you. Walkazo was a great user. I hope she rests in peace. Man this... I didn't... expect it. Again... my condolences ;_;
 
Honestly, I don't think I ever appreciated having Walkazo around as much as I do now. Personally, I think this is a good time to learn to not take people things for granted because if you do, you won't realize how much you appreciate them until they're gone.
 
Yesterday and today were the most sad and tragic days and events this entire community ever experienced. To see a true visionary of this community pass away really affects us all.
 
This is awful. Just checked the MarioWiki today and saw it. It has touched me because even though she wasn't close to me, she was part of the MarioWiki family, and a great contributor to our community. Car accidents are just horrible, death is horrible.

It's amazing to see how many people on here truly cared for Walkazo and supported her work she has done not only for us, but her personal life.

Now it is going to sound weird, but I am glad we found out what has happened, usually we have people on here who disappear and we hear nothing of them again.
 
Yeah, I couldn't really control my anguish so well. One student caught me crying and ready to sob in class, so she took me out and asked me what the matter. I had to break it to her and we had a serious discussion about grief and coping with it. She said it's okay to cry, but don't dwell in it in the future. Don't think about things Walkazo could've done, think about positive memories and past experiences with her, keep it in your memory as sweet even if it's overwhelming sadness, and move on. She told me, don't start being scared of driving. But it's hard for me because auto-accidents are the number one killer for young people. I think her point is that I shouldn't let my nervousness override me.

This really reminds me of that scene from Inside Out where Joy let Sadness transform yellow happy past memories from Joy and mixed them to be both blue and yellow. I remember that moment in the film to be probably one of the more powerful emotional moments, and I'll have to think about this now when I think about Walkazo. Joy mixed with sadness.

She also said I should do something. Considering that I was in drawing class today, we both thought I should do a drawing of her, for her family. I had other ideas such as making a 3D scene that involves our community, but that may take a bit of an effort. And this makes me even more sad: I've always wanted to draw her Mariosona character just to give it to her personally via PM to show how much I appreciate her and how much I look up to her, even though I've always had self-doubts about my honesty like I'm just fishing for praise and respect. I guess I'll just make a drawing for her posthumously now. Wonder what I should do once my drawing is done, should I PM/email to Pantaro?

I also broke it to my mother (and I had told my brother about it yesterday, who totally understood and reserved a moment of silence just for Walkazo) and my mom looked sad, and the incident both reminded us of when mom's own brother died in a fatal accident. Mom told me that death doesn't discriminate, and it really affected the living more than the dead, but it helps the living bond and weep together.

I just want to say that I enjoy this community more for getting together and grieving together. It's the right way to cope. I hope we all in the end get stronger from this tragedy. I wish I can talk to you all personally, I just want to see your faces, want all of us to look at the sky, watch the crows and pigeons and sparrows and finches traveling through the sky, listen to the wind rustling the trees and flowers, and just reflect deeply together.
 
I'm sorry I couldn't do more, but I wanted to do something. I know she was a big fan of the show Avatar so I made a little video. It's not much, but here's something in honor of her.

 
Thought I'd make a follow-up to my last post on this subject after having a day to mull it over.

The truth is, I didn't know Walky like most of these people seem to have known her, so this isn't affecting me in the same way it's affecting all of you. In fact, I barely knew her at all. My interactions with her were brief, and she seemed standoffish the few times we interacted, but I'm not in a place to judge her solely from these interactions with her. It seems that she was a phenomenal person from all of these posts, so it's possible she just didn't like me in particular. But that's not important.

Regardless of that, this got me thinking about the situation on a psychological level, and just the whole concept of death. It's the sad truth that death can affect a person at any age. I'm sure all of you here never even consider the concept of someone in this community dying, not only because we're so young, but because we all try to repress death from our conscious mind. And understandably so, because death is not something we want to face. It's not a pleasant concept and we often try to push it out of our minds.

I also started thinking about how grateful and lucky we are that Walkazo's brother was a former member of this community. Imagine if nobody had said anything, she would have just been passed off as another member who faded away and abruptly left the community without a goodbye (like a large mass of people have done). And that's another terrifying concept - for all we know, it's possible inactive users of the past have actually passed away, but we would never know as they didn't have a surrogate to spread the news. Not only that, but I'm sure there's a good amount of users here that are on this community privately and don't even tell others about it in real life, myself included. So their next of kin wouldn't know to come on here and tell us, much less to know their login (though it is possible that Walkazo had left her computer logged on here when Pantaro arrived). So Pantaro, we can't thank you enough for giving us the news. As sad as the news is, like several have said, it's best that we know the truth about Walkazo rather than thinking she simply went inactive. This way, she can be properly remembered.

Anyway... I just thought I'd post what was on my mind in regards to this scenario. I must say again, rest in peace, Walkazo.
 
MCS said:
I also started thinking about how grateful and lucky we are that Walkazo's brother was a former member of this community. Imagine if nobody had said anything, she would have just been passed off as another member who faded away and abruptly left the community without a goodbye (like a large mass of people have done). And that's another terrifying concept - for all we know, it's possible inactive users of the past have actually passed away, but we would never know as they didn't have a surrogate to spread the news. Not only that, but I'm sure there's a good amount of users here that are on this community privately and don't even tell others about it in real life, myself included. So their next of kin wouldn't know to come on here and tell us, much less to know their login (though it is possible that Walkazo had left her computer logged on here when Pantaro arrived). So Pantaro, we can't thank you enough for giving us the news. As sad as the news is, like several have said, it's best that we know the truth about Walkazo rather than thinking she simply went inactive. This way, she can be properly remembered.

Anyway... I just thought I'd post what was on my mind in regards to this scenario. I must say again, rest in peace, Walkazo.
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I was just thinking about this a little bit ago.

If I hadn't followed Pantaro's dA acount years ago on a whim, I never would have known.

My last e-mail would've just gone unresponded to, and I'd have no idea why. Stuck worrying, did something happen, is she okay, did I say something wrong, until I'd finally stumble onto her FFNet page, probably months from now, only to find that memorial.

So thank you, Pantaro, for being the bearer of bad news. I know this is a strange thing to say, but it means a lot to me.
 
They're nothing that I can say that will do her justice no matter how elaborate or formal, so I will be quick. All I know is that we severely took Walkazo's role here for granted. She was among the best and most important users here.

As the first person that I've every had contact with to pass away, this is especially heartbreaking for me, and I don't know how to deal with this. It's made me suddenly appreciate everyone in my life more. I really don't know how I can pay my respects enough; the least I can do is have this black ribbon as my sig.

Rest in peace.
 
Perhaps some will find this in bad taste, but I'm going to say now what I had said to her many a time and always got a laugh:

"I leave you kids alone for a few days and come back to the damnedest things, I swear."

I've had the pleasure of speaking with and working along side Walkazo for a lot of the wiki's lifespan. I was always honored to find that she valued my opinion and we would sometimes end up in long discussion chains about archiving philosophy, particularly so during the two years following my first retirement. She would sometimes refer to the staff as "janitors that worked with no pay" as a joke. What I could never get across to her is that she had is wrong. I'm a janitor. The rest of the staff is a mix of creators and librarians. Her? She was a leader.

That's..that's all I've got right now, I'm sorry. I'll come back to this when I can articulate my thoughts better.
 
I never really talked to Walkazo, but she was undeniably a great person, who achieved quite a lot. As much of an understatement as that sounded, her life was cut short and my hopes are with everybody.

Rest in peace Walkazo, the wiki and forum won't be the same without you.
 
Here is my video tribute to Walkazo.

 
Walkazo, you were one of the most amazing writers I've ever had. You were always friendly and hardworking, and I could feel the passion for your art and music coming through your sections. I regret not getting to know you outside The 'Shroom, but I am thankful that you took on so many roles in Palette Swap. We'll never forget you, and I'll always miss reading your writing and giggling at your comics. You were a wonderful person, and may you rest in peace. :(
 
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